B2B events can be a great way of raising your company’s profile and grow your business. It’s not as simple as whacking the details of the event on Eventbrite and hoping the crowds will come. There are so many business events in the North East, it can be really hard to stand out from the crowd and make sure you get the right bums on seats. And can giving free nachos work?

Earlier this year we helped Information Governance and IT security consultancy Evolve North, to promote and organise an event for IT professionals and Data Protection Officers. Getting the theme of the event was key and having a targeted list of who they wanted to invite was imperative for the success of the event. The ‘Brexit and the Data Protection Challenge’ theme was timely and of interest and the event was well attended.

At Stone Collective we’ve organised many events for clients from legal seminars targeted at IFAs , to social value and marketing panel events which appealed to the broader North East business community.

The main things you need to focus on when organising the event are:

Theme – Make sure the theme is relevant and interesting enough for people you want to be there.

Time – Build in enough time to pull together a list of which companies you want to invite and give them enough time for their diaries.

Format – Are you collaborating with others on a panel to bring in more people. Remember, not everyone is interested in apprenticeships (if you’re an apprenticeships provider), but they might be interested in an MD of a large IT company who has an award winning apprenticeship provider.

Follow up – Make sure your team has a target in mind for having the event in the first place e.g. 50 x new prospects to be added to our enews, 5 x meetings with prospects. And make sure you follow up with a feedback form and try to get a 1-1 on the back of the event.

If you haven’t got the time to do the ‘heavy work’ bring in a marketing or events company to do it for you.

Please get in touch if you’re planning an event and need some help. And yes, free Nachos for attendees worked very well for an informal marketing event we organised.